Health. Food.

First of all, I’m not going to crib about my diet and talk about how much I love everything that’s sinful, including food. Let’s just take that as a given.

The point is, if there’s one thing in which I don’t want the twins to end up like me, it’s my attitude to food. I want them to grow up to have a balanced and healthy attitude to food. I want them to be unfussy eaters, who will try anything once, will like most things, will have stomachs lined with lead, will thrive on bland, homemade, stale food as much as on oily, spicy, toxic street food, and through it all will achieve a balanced diet with a good proportion of dal, carb, fruit ‘n’ veg, dairy and non-veg.

And, of course, I hope they will always enjoy cakes and ice creams, but will never be cursed with an insatiable sweet tooth.

Is that too much to ask???

While the twins were at home full time, we made sure they got only healthy food. Their milk, curd, butter, and cheese came out of a packet of some kind, as did bread and cornflakes, but just about everything else they ate was fresh. They got fresh fruit and vegetables and enjoyed most of it; and fresh meat and chicken as well. They got no soups or juices out of a packet. They got no chocolates, no sweet except for what I sometimes made at home, no biscuits, no chips, practically no packaged foods at all. I did give them frozen peas, but they never liked them, though they loved fresh peas. Smart kids.

(Of course, I must clarify, to quell those rising eyebrows, that when I say ‘fresh’ food, I mean the ingredients are fresh as opposed to frozen or preserved. The food they get cannot not always be described as fresh, but I do usually impose a 48-hour limit; anything cooked more than 48 hours ago lands up in the trash can. That would be me.)

So right up until they joined ‘big’ school this June, they rarely had access to junk food like biscuits, chips, soft drinks, chocolates, toffees and the like. In playschool, they sometimes got a chocolate, but it wasn’t very often, and, back then, sometimes I just grabbed it from them and distracted them for a few minutes and they’d forget all about it (after shedding a few indignant tears).

Now, of course, it’s a different story. If they get goodies at school, they usually eat them before I get there (smart kids), but if they still have them on hand, it’s not as if I can just take them away, distract the kids and they’ll forget all about them. Oh no!

For one thing, they have my number. They don’t trust me at all when it comes to chocolate – and with good reason; if only they knew how many of the chocolates intended for them have landed up in the dustbin (me)! Now, if I tell them to put their sweets in their bags, they protest loudly, and when they finally comply, they keep a sharp eye on their bags. The whole way home, a small part of their memories are dedicated to the stored chocolate. As soon as we reach home, they start to ransack their bags looking for their chocolate. At which point, I usually take it away from them and keep it on top of the microwave – within eyesight, but, mercifully, still out of their reach. The deal is that if they eat their lunch like good girls (without throwing their food around and generally driving me crazy), then they will get chocolate. They don’t yet know that they shouldn’t have to negotiate for something that’s rightfully theirs… But that day is not far off.

One day Tara was too sleepy to gracefully complete her lunch, so I put her to bed sans chocolate. Mrini, however, said to me assertively, “I don’t want sabzi, I don’t want chicken, I don’t want dahi, I want only chocolate.” So I gave her hers.

Three hours later, Tara woke from her afternoon nap, and, still groggy and rubbing her eyes with both fists, said to me, “Mama, I want my chocolate.”

Well, I gave it to her – with Mrini looking on and saying “Taya, ha-piece-ha-piece,” as sweetly as she could. I told Tara that Mrini had already had hers, but she promptly broke her chocolate in half and gave it to Mrini regardless. It’s absolutely heart-warming to see her do that without any hesitation or prompting… especially considering that Mrini rarely returns the favour.

So distracting them and hoping they’ll forget about it just won’t work any more.

Still, they do get quite a lot of chocolate in school some days. It kills their appetite for lunch, and I doubt it does their teeth any good. And I really don’t want them to develop as much of a sweet tooth as I have. I don’t know whether not getting a lot of sweet at this age actually helps to develop a sweet tooth, or whether being denied it helps to avoid getting a sweet tooth; but it just seems like in this respect less must be better. So whenever I can, I still surreptitiously reduce the quantity of sweet that they actually get. Very sneaky and mean of me, no doubt, but that’s what parenting is all about, isn’t it?

What I really started out writing about though, is, why do all school birthday treats have to be packaged foods? I know that not all parents have time to bake up a storm like I did – and it is a lot of work – but can’t you do something simple and homemade? Or else send fruit? Or something that’s not food?

I’m a great fan of eating out and even of eating packaged food, but for these tiny tots, I still feel that the less packaged foods they get, the better. At least with homemade stuff, you have a better idea of what’s gone in it and how much of what and whether it is likely to be allergenic or not; and also, you have better control over the hygiene conditions. But most importantly, it’s the only way to minimise kids’ exposure to chemicals like preservatives, flavouring agents, and the like. Shouldn’t we be thinking of that for at least a few years?

I know – they’re three years old, I should just let go. We do the best we can at home and I should just let go of what’s beyond my control. And I will. But, when they come home with three or four different bits of chocolate and a commercially made cup-cake each, I just wonder.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under twins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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4 Responses to Health. Food.

this is one area i am putting lots of my focus these days..with lots of argument with my wife as well!
I feel most health problem comes from what we think are ‘fresh’ in this modern india..like those beautiful round apples, thick red tomatos with nice shape, fat & bright oranges,those curvy premium onions,appealing yellow bananas, fair & smooth skinned pomegranate..tasty seedless grapes..those big sized cauliflowers with no more worms which we used to remove putting them in hot water in olden days!!
All these issues started coming in awareness programs in TV & magazines in Chennai..but here its yet to start! I stopped buying all these now and started getting those skinny, colourless, under sized veg & fruits from street market! I am scared when i recently came to know what broiler chicken are being fed to grow fast & fat! These days, chicken is a rare & monthly once item in our menu ! 🙂

As for food, we can only do as much as is within our control at home. Once they get to school, I think it gets tough…And I find it funny that my Mom finds it funny that I want to keep Anya away from sugar for as long as possible. What’s so funny about that, I ask you?

This is the very issue which is topmost in my mind these days as I get closer to sending little p to school. I am so dreading it, I can’t tell you. Obviously since I am more a control freak than you can ever be. I am in complete agreement with the thought that I don’t want little p to be like me – eating sweets because I must. But I feel it is a losing battle specially with school looming large in the horizon where kids are given lolipops because it is good for their speech. For heaven’t sake! And though I don’t know Lipilabh I have to say that I have met my share of older generation types who laugh at the notion of keeping sugar and sweets away from kids for as long as possible.

Loved your post. Since as usual I am late on writing about this having registered a title on a subject along similar lines long ago in drafts. 🙂 But I couldn’t have put it like this.

I think we all go through this phase. We want the best for our kids and so we tend to become a bit overzealous in this respect. I used to try and avoid extra salt in Saboor’s porridge..in fact even saltless! Turns out, he grows up into a salt loving freak!! He liberally sprinkles cucumbers with salt and the more salty a curry is, the more he loves it. Sheesh!

You know what used to bother me about these birthdays in schools when my sister was studying? Elaborate return gifts such as felt pens and pencil boxes and all that and I used to wonder what happened to the simple eclair that we used to get from the birthday girl?

In one respect, Azhaan’s school is doing a pretty good job because they actually have a snack menu. They have made it clear that they will not allow us to send them chips, wafers and cakes or chocolates. No fried things and no white bread either. So every week I have to wonder what to put in his tiffin box. And only during birthdays do the kids get to eat chocolates.(which is pointless in a way because they end up eating chocs almost everyday)

And Mika – if you give the kids milk without sugar, their teeth will be safe for a long long time. Saboor for all his chocolate eating hasnt got a single cavity yet!